


Tempus Fugit

by misura



Category: The Borgias (Showtime TV)
Genre: Background Cesare Borgia/Micheletto Corella, Multi, background cesare borgia/lucrezia borgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 07:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18633919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "We'll have to protect him, you and I," she says. "I might even need to seek marriage again.""He'll kill any man who touches you," Micheletto says. It's a cold, professional assessment.





	Tempus Fugit

"What's it like, to - " Lucrezia gestures vaguely, " - with another man?"

There are grass stains on her dress. Micheletto is neither oblivious nor naive; he knows what that signifies. Even so.

Even so, this is Cesare's sister, the apple of his eye, the weak spot in his armor.

"I expect it is much like it is with a woman," he says. "But different."

Lucrezia giggles. She's nervous, Micheletto realizes, a bit too late to be useful. "The Bible claims it is a mortal sin," she pushes, expression serious again, even though her eyes are sparkling. "Does it feel so very good then, that it's worth risking your soul for?"

_I no more possess a soul than a conscience,_ Micheletto considers saying. He's not even sure that he has a heart. (Once, he'd have been sure. After Paschal, he's come to doubt, to wonder.)

"There's pleasure in it, I suppose," he says. "As in eating, when you're hungry, or breathing, when you've been drowning." He's gone without for weeks, months, but there always comes a time when the gnawing need becomes too much of a distraction, when the risk of discovery outweighs the risk of it influencing his ability to perform his duties.

"If I knew that I would never get to see Cesare again, I expect that I would rather die than continue living," Lucrezia says. She sounds very matter of fact about it.

"I expect he feels the same," Micheletto says, voice as level as hers. "My lady."

"Is that what it's like, then? Love?"

Micheletto does not think of himself as someone capable of love. Like mercy, and justice, love is a concept outside of his expertise. He's heard of it, yes, but he's never experienced it for himself.

"You musn't think I'm jealous, you know," Lucrezia says.

"Of whom?" Micheletto asks, half-distracted by Cesare, appearing in the courtyard below.

Lucrezia giggles again. "Of you, of course. Though I suppose I am, a little. You're a man, after all. You can accompany him everywhere, do anything he does."

_So could you_ Micheletto doesn't say, because he knows it would be untrue. As a woman, as a lady, Lucrezia's freedom is limited, her reputation taking precedecence over her happiness. Even Cesare, lovestruck as he is, will only bend so far in accommodating Lucrezia's desires.

"Besides, rather you than some other woman," Lucrezia adds, making it not quite sound like a question.

Micheletto does not know what Cesare has told her about his wife - or about Micheletto himself, for that matter. "I do not believe any other woman might mean as much to him as you do."

"Nor any other man?" Lucrezia arches an eyebrow.

_He pleases himself with me for purely rational reasons,_ Micheletto does not say. _To keep me from finding another Paschal, who will eat my bread and share my home and betray me._ It should offend him, he thinks, to be pitied - and yet, when Cesare is with him, he does not feel pitied.

Cesare's body is not soft, or pliant; Micheletto does not touch it knowing that it belongs to him as near as any human being can belong to another, however briefly.

"No," he says, wondering for the first time how it is between Cesare and his sister.

She must be sure of him, Micheletto thinks. A woman will not crawl into her brother's bed unless she is certain of her welcome, nor a brother into his sister's.

There's no logic to it, no weighing of risks, of costs and benefits. Even more than any of Micheletto's brief liaisons, theirs is a relationship sure to be condemned if it ever becomes known. By rights, they should be wary of even being seen together.

Instead, Lucrezia flaunts her grass-stained dresses, while Cesare snarls at any man other than Micheletto who dares to linger in Lucrezia's company. Small wonder if the rumor mill is turning already.

"We'll have to protect him, you and I," she says. "I might even need to seek marriage again."

"He'll kill any man who touches you," Micheletto says. It's a cold, professional assessment. He refrains from adding, _Assuming I don't beat him to it_.

Lucrezia smiles gently, as if he's naive, a little innocent. "He wants to rule. He'll need allies."

Between ambition and love, what man would choose love? "Nevertheless," says Micheletto.

"You love him as much as I do, but I think that perhaps you do not know him as well."

_I think I have seen him do things that would make you look at him as you would at a stranger._ Perhaps that is unfair, though; there is enough steel in her to see a man dead for denying her her son.

"You may be right, my lady. Time enough to worry about that when it happens though, yes?"

"Sometimes I feel that time is the one thing we will never have enough of," Lucrezia says.


End file.
